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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25733698">Owl House Analysis</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorBabylon/pseuds/DoctorBabylon'>DoctorBabylon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Analysis, Episode Review, Essays, Spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:40:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25733698</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorBabylon/pseuds/DoctorBabylon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that the Owl House season 1 has ended I'll be analyzing the show one episode at a time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Lying Witch and a Warden</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Now that the first season of the Owl House is finished I'm going to start analyzing the show, one episode at a time.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h2 class="western">Opening minute</h2><p>The first minute of “A Lying Witch and a Warden” introduces us to the protagonist Luz Noceda while also quietly and efficiently setting up all of the the series major over-arching themes: Authority and Conformity vs. Freedom and Individuality, Reality vs. Fantasy, and moral ambiguity. The series begins with a melodramatic fantasy battle in which the good witch Azura vanquishes an evil snake; then immediately cuts to Luz in the principle office for bringing snakes to school and accidentally letting them get free and bite people (she also brought fireworks). Luz has somehow deluded herself that she “knocked it out of the park” with her book report.</p><p>This scene is played for comedy but it establishes something very important about Luz’s character: Luz isn’t just a harmless goofball, she is reckless in a way that is legitimately dangerous. This sets the precedent for some insanely reckless and selfish decisions that Luz is going to make in future episodes.</p><p>The theme of “Authority/Conformity vs. Freedom/Individuality” is developed in flashbacks to the previous three incidents that landed Luz in the principle’s office. Unlike the snake incident we just saw none of the previous incidents of weird behavior actually hurt anybody; nobody was hurt by Luz going overboard during the play, nor by her doing that freaky thing with her eyes, the only thing which could conceivably have hurt anybody would be the spiders she put in the taxidermy Griffen but most spiders in the Untied States are benign so chances are that wasn’t harmful either. These overreactions on the part of the school show that the rules Luz acts in defiance of are often just as arbitrary as her own whims.</p>
<h2 class="western">Camilla Noceda</h2><p>Luz’s mom Camilla Noceda decides to send her daughter to Reality Check summer camp where Luz will be taught to “think inside the box”, bearing that in mind it would have been painfully easy for the show to portray Luz’s mom as a stereotypical unreasonable adult but The Owl House doesn’t do that. Camilla Noceda’s characterization is very sympathetic. Camilla says she loves Luz’s creativity and even takes a knee to speak to Luz on her eye level; Camilla also has a very gentle voice. Even after her daughter’s actions cause physical harm, Camilla was still willing to give Luz another chance, until the snake in Luz’s hand got free and attacked the principle.</p><p>There appears to be a communication breakdown between mother and daughters. Luz declares “no more weirdness” but never acknowledges her behavior has hurt people. Similarly Camilla tries to make Luz feel better about going to Reality Check but unintentionally highlights all the reasons the camp will probably make Luz miserable.</p>
<h2 class="western">Luz’s arrival in the Demon Realm</h2><p>Shortly after Luz arrives on the Boiling Isles, she meets a fairy and expects it to tell her that what she’s experiencing is just a fantastical dream, instead the fairy shows off it’s teeth and yells at her “Give me you’re skin!”. This establishes the fact that Luz’s knowledge of fantasy tropes hasn’t prepared her for life in the Demon Realm; this becomes very important in upcoming episodes.</p>
<h2 class="western">Edda vs. Warden wrath</h2><p>Warden Wrath is an agent of oppression tasked with enforcing arbitrary social norms; he’s also a guy who abuses his position of power to try and bully a woman into dating him. On the other side you’ve got Eda, who doesn’t exactly come across as a heroic rebel. Eda lied to Luz to trick her into going on a dangerous and unnecessary mission to retrieve King’s cardboard crown; she was completely nonchalant about Wrath torturing a small creature and she showed no interest in freeing the innocent prisoners (though she did help Luz do so when Luz asked her). The fact that she was willing to go on this mission however emphasizes how much Eda cares about King, Eda also upholds her end of the bargain by giving Luz a way home.</p><p>The parallel between the innocent weirdos unjustly imprisoned and Luz’s unnecessary detention is so obvious that Luz herself points it out. What Luz fails to do however is take this line of thought to it’s logical conclusion and recognize what the existence of a place like the Conformitorium implies; the same arbitrary rules and pressure to conform which Luz faces in the human world exists in the Demon Realm as well.</p><p>At the end of the first episode Eda opens the doorway to let Luz return to the human world, but Luz decides to defy her mother and stays in The Owl House to learn magic rather than go to summer camp. Luz is an unusual Isekai protagonist in the fact that she has the ability to go back home whenever she want.</p><p>Despite refusing to go to camp, Luz still winds up having a summer filled with reality checks.</p>
<h2 class="western">King</h2><p>Before I move on to analyzing the next episode I’d like to talk about King for a bit. </p><p>King’s claim to have once been the king of demons is dubious and there are several clues pointing to it being a lie. To begin with the backstory Eda provides for King in this episode to explain how he lost his powers/throne is revealed to be a lie and no alternate explanation has ever been provided for how King supposedly lost his powers. King claimed to be able to “feel the crown’s power” when he was outside the room the crown was held. What I find most damning is that he never broke character, not after Luz could see with her own eyes it was just a toy, not even after Eda herself explained it was a lie and the crown didn’t give him any power. There are other indicators in other episodes that King was never king of demons but I’ll bring them up as we get to them.</p><p>If I’m right about this then it would also tie King’s characterization into the theme of Fantasy vs. Reality and provide another parallel between him and Luz.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Witches Before Wizards</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>Witches Before Wizards</em> has two major themes: it’s primary theme is Fantasy vs. Reality and it’s secondary theme is Hard Work vs. Shortcuts.</p>
<h2 class="western">Teaser</h2>
<p>The teaser for <em>Witches Before Wizards</em> reintroduces the main characters, sets up Luz’s character arc and establishes episode’s central theme of Fantasy vs. Reality. The episode begins with a dream sequence comprised of clips from the pilot, Luz wakes up and is ecstatic that her adventures yesterday weren’t just a dream.</p>
<p>There’s a scene where Luz stands in front of the mirror, opens the Azura book a page with the heroine’s face over it and holds the book over her own face “This is it old girl. You’re first day on the Boiling Isles as a witch apprentice”. Luz is viewing the situation as though she’s stepped inside the world of the Azura book and is living out her self-insert fanfiction. I mentioned in my analysis of the pilot that despite refusing to go to summer camp that Luz is still going to have a summer filled with reality checks. This episode is where that process begins.</p>
<p>When Luz opens Eda’s closet she sees what she wants to see and doesn’t question it; instead of a black bathrobe and dirty traffic cone she sees “witchy clothes”. This is one of the flaws that will make Luz vulnerable to being exploited by Adegast. This scene is paralleled later in the episode when Luz asks “where’s my quest-granting wizard?” then a minute later she meets Adegast in his wizard disguise, and she doesn’t question it when he offers her a quest to the Celestial Staff.</p>
<p>Luz stands at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Eda to come downstairs, then excitedly greets Eda as soon as she sees her “Good morning Eda the Owl Lady, I am ready for my first day of witch apprenticeship” but Eda isn’t fully awake yet and doesn’t remember who Luz is. This scene is also paralleled later in the episode when Adegast is introduced by showing him at the top of the stairs and Luz gazing up at him.</p>
<p>Adegast serves as a foil for Eda, hence their juxtaposed introductions. From the moment she’s onscreen Eda contradicts Luz’s idealized expectations of what life in a magical world as a witch’s apprentice is going to be like; Adegast appears to fulfill them expectations perfectly. Adegast’s introductory scene is mystical and dramatic where Eda’s is mundane and mildly comedic. Eda tells Luz inconvenient truths to help her grow, while Adegast tells her reassuring lies to exploit and hurt her.</p>
<h2 class="western">
<a id="__RefHeading___Toc1836_1865499750" name="__RefHeading___Toc1836_1865499750"></a>Early morning foreshadowing</h2>
<p>Luz rattles off a list of things she’s excited for “Teach me some spells. When do I get a magic staff? Was I supposed to bring my own runes?” then gasps and excitedly asks “Do you have a dangerous magical quest for me?” Luz’s request that Eda teach her spells and the mention of runes foreshadows that when Luz learns her first spell in episode 4 it will be using runic magic. Eda alludes to/foreshadows Hexside when she mentions that witches are usually awarded their magical staffs from school.</p>
<p>The theme of “Hard Work vs. Shortcuts” is set up when Eda tells Luz that “becoming a witch doesn’t happen overnight” and if she wants a magic staff she’ll have to “work for it”. Luz doesn’t take this lesson to heart however and her impatience is another one of the flaws that makes her vulnerable to being manipulated by Adegast.</p>
<p>Luz also doesn’t listen to Eda when she tells her “you’ll have to be careful, I have rivals everywhere who’d love to take my business and you along with it” and “never befriend a man in sandals”. One of the first things Adegast tells Luz is that he runs a business selling portions; if Luz were smarter or at least more clearheaded she would have put together not to trust him. Adegast is also very conspicuously wearing sandals, though I don’t blame Luz for ignoring/forgetting about that second warning since it sounded nonsensical and wasn’t explained at all.</p>
<h2 class="western">Bonesborough</h2>
<p>King accompanies Luz on her delivery job to prevent her from “getting lost or eaten” and we get to see a different side to both characters. King serves as another cynical counterpoint to Luz’s youthful optimism but is much more direct and aggressive about it than Eda is. He openly mocks Luz’s aspirations and tells her the Boiling Isles is nothing but a cesspool of despair. King is also there to provide snarky commentary while he and Luz are at Adegast’s house.</p>
<p>It wasn’t naivety and impatience alone which allowed Luz to be tricked by Adegast, ego also played a major role. Luz’s ego first rears it’s head when she says “There must be a reason for that right, why am I here? What if I Luz Noceda, average teen, actually had a predetermined path of greatness? Just...Like...Azura!!” It’s not explicitly stated but I think this line implies that The Good Witch Azura series is an Isekai story.</p>
<p>The moment Luz’s egotistical side truly begins to shine is when she declares “today I’m delivering packages but tomorrow I’ll be earning the respect of everyone on the Isles with my magical prowess”. This line directly contradicts Eda’s warning that “becoming a witch doesn’t happen overnight”. Even though she’s new to this world and has never practiced magic before she expects to quickly and easily surpass those who have been here and practicing it there entire lives.</p>
<p>By the end of the episode Luz does fortunately gain some humility.</p>
<h2 class="western">Quests</h2>
<p>Eda sends Luz on a quest to deliver packages and sell potions Bonesborough; and Adegast sends her on a quest to retrieve the Celestial Staff from a lake. She accepts each with the expectation it will lead to her gaining a magic staff. To Luz, obtaining a magic staff symbolizes becoming a true witch. With Eda the promise of a staff is relegated to a vague and likely distant “someday” where Adegast offers Luz a more immediate reward.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that when Eda described her delivering potions as a “dangerous magical quest” she was actually telling the truth. We don’t see much of Luz’s deliveries but we do see a doorbell come to life and swallow her hand when she tries to ring it. This gives us a taste (no pun intended) of how terrible Luz’s day delivering potions must have been. Luz later says that her being human makes everyone want to either scream at her or eat her.</p>
<p>Despite Adegast telling Luz the road to the Celestial Staff would be “dark and perilous” she isn’t forced to fight monsters or evade traps or traverse a dangerous terrain. The closest thing to an obstacle she faces is a small furry creature named Chris who tells her she needs to solve a riddle to cross the bridge; but this so called riddle is just asking her what his name is and he’s wearing a name-tag. Adegast is showing Luz the kind of fantasy world she wished she had landed in. Just a simple power fantasy where her feelings of uniqueness and supremacy are validated, where things are handed to her without really needing to work for them, and where she isn’t forced to grow or change as a person.</p>
<p>My biggest problem with this episode is the climax. The items Luz was given on her quest are used to trap her, but these restraints inexplicably vanish a few moments later allowing Luz to grab her toy sword and use it to defeat him. It’s also never explained how this toy sword is able to cut through things. After Luz stabs Adegast he deflates down to about the size of a mouse and then Eda kills him by eating and swallowing him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. I Was a Teenage Abombination</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a revised version of my analysis of episode 3.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House episode 3 analysis</b>
</p><p><em>I was a </em><em>Teenager Abomination</em> <span>establishes Hexside as a location and expands the cast by introducing Willow, Gus, and of course Amity. T</span><span>his episode has Hard Work vs. Laziness/Shortcuts as it’s primary theme and student/teacher relationships as a major motif. Authority vs. Rebellion, Reality vs. Fantasy, and Moral Ambiguity </span><span>all serve as secondary themes.</span></p><h2 class="western">
<span>T</span><span>easer</span>
</h2><p><em>I was a Teenage Abomination</em> <span>begins with the main trio at the beach. Eda brought Luz there to </span><span>help her pick apart a dead Trash Slug. Eda clearly thinks she’s giving Luz a treat and even refers to the Trash Slug as “breathtaking” and “inspiring”.</span><span> When Eda says the trash slug “makes a home, a life for itself from what others have thrown by the wayside” that description applies equally to herself, </span><span>in fact the reason they’re on the beach is to scavenge the slug’s insides and sell the stuff it ate. </span></p><p>
  <span>It’s easy to understand both why Eda feels a kinship and fondness for this creature,</span>
  <span> and why Luz is grossed out and doesn’t want to do this. T</span>
  <span>he theme of Hard Work vs. Laziness/Shortcuts first comes into play as Luz refuses to do the job and asks for some easier lessons instead. This is also the first appearance of the Authority vs. Rebellion theme.</span>
</p><p>“<span>Wait. Is there a magic school here? Like, winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?” </span><span>The fact that Luz asks Eda instead of taking for granted that magic school will be like it is in her books shows a subtle bit of character growth on Luz’s part and</span><span> ties into the theme of Reality vs. Fantasy.</span></p><p>
  <span>When Eda complains about school forcing students to learn magic the “proper way” then contrasts that with how magic is supposed to be wild and unpredictable, she’s talking about the Coven System </span>
  <span>without mentioning it by name. </span>
  <span>The Coven System is indirectly alluded to a second time when Willow says she’s not supposed to be doing plant magic because her parents put her in the abomination track at school</span>
</p><h3 class="western">
<span>E</span><span>da’s teaching method</span>
</h3><p>
  <span>E</span>
  <span>da gives Luz the greasy slimeball and tells “use you’re slimeball wisely”, indicating that the object is useful, but she doesn’t tell her what it is or what it’s for. Eda trusts Luz to figure that out on her own since “a great witch is resourceful”</span>
  <span>. </span>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>his seed comes back during the climax as the Chekhov’s Gun that Willow uses to help Luz escape Hexside</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s value in requiring students to think for themselves instead of spoon-feeding them everything, but considering Luz is completely new to this world and to magic I think Eda is expecting more independence from her than is realistic </span>
  <span>at this point</span>
  <span>. </span>
  <span>I think Eda’s hands off mentoring style was also at least partially motivated by laziness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For probably the first time in her life Luz wants more structure than she’s being given. Having a formal magical education doesn’t sound boring or inherently oppressive to her, at the moment it seems like an easier alternative to Eda’s </span>
  <span>methods. </span>
  <span>L</span>
  <span>uz is being a lazy apprentice when she decides to go home and look at pictures of animals instead of helping Eda scavenge the trash slug; the fact that Eda just lets Luz go is another sign that Eda is being kind of a lazy mentor.</span>
</p><h2 class="western">Witch Drama</h2><p>We see a chubby bespectacled witch girl try to reassure herself she can succeed. She steps on a flower then apologizes to it, kneels down and heals it with her magic. This is our introduction to Willow Park.</p><p>Willow briefly smiles but then a magically animated wheelbarrow holding a large closed jar of abomination goop rolls into the scene; sitting atop that jar a green haired girl is reading a “Magic 101” book. Willow’s smile breaks. The green haired literal literally looks down on Willow while addressing her. The green haired girl stands over Willow (who is still kneeling on the ground) and says “you’re so unnoticeable into ya” and chuckles. The flower dies, symbolizing whatever feeble confidence Willow managed to build up in the past few minutes has been broken. This is our introduction to Amity Blight.</p><p>Amity proceeds to gives Willow a condescending, snarky, and self-aggrandizing pep talk. Even though Amity is introduced as an Alpha Bitch, she has other traits right off the bat. She enjoys reading and takes pride in being the top student. Amity’s style of bullying also adds to her characterization; though I’ll talk more about in future chapters. Willow isn’t just a timid pushover either. Immediately after Amity leaves, we get our first glimpse of how powerful Willow’s magic truly is as she gets angry and lashes out.</p><h2 class="western">The bet and Prince Junior</h2><p>The theme of Fantasy vs. Reality doesn’t play a role in the A story with Luz and Willow but plays a major role in the B story with Eda and King.</p><p>King raises the specter of Luz’s disloyalty, warning Eda that if she doesn’t teach Luz right then she’ll lose her as an apprentice. That’s actually a realistic concern but what King says next sounds like a delusional fantasy. He claims that he’ll make Luz his apprentice and “teach her about demons, how identify them, talk to them, raise an army with them, and tear apart the world”.</p><p>This kicks off a subplot where King makes a bet with Eda to prove he can be a better teacher by teaching a trash slug to be his loyal soldier in one day. Eda treats Luz’s apprenticeship like a casino chip when she made this bet, and Eda’s stated motivation was only to utterly humiliate King. Neither Eda nor King come across as the good guy in this situation.</p><p>King claims to be providing positive reinforcement but really he’s just giving away treats unconditionally. If you pay attention you’ll realize Prince Jr never once follows any of King’s commands, but King rewards it and reacts as if his commands are being followed. This level of detachment from reality is comparable to when Luz thought she’d “knocked it out of the park” with her book report in episode 1.</p><p>This subplot also serves as a metaphor for why Eda can’t just give Luz whatever she wants. King doesn’t make Prince Jr work for anything or earn anything and as a result Prince Jr never actually learns anything. Of the three teachers present in this episode King is by far the laziest.</p><p>If King is on the side of Fantasy in this episode then Eda is once again on the side of realty, which is why she’s ultimately vindicated.</p><h2 class="western">Hexside</h2><p>“Hey, wait. I know how we can both get what we want. Make me your abomination. I'll get you a good grade, and you can get me into magic school. It's fiendishly clever.” Both girls are defying their respective teachers with this plan: Willow knows this is cheating and Luz knows Eda wouldn’t approve of her going to Hexside.</p><p>This plan is a lazy shortcut both in the sense that it’s intended to get Willow a grade she didn’t earn and in the sense that the girls didn’t put much thought or effort into making their deception plausible. Luz doesn’t even bother covering her arms with abomination goop. This harebrained scheme only winds up succeeding because the teacher is to lazy to question it. The teacher has his abomination carry him everywhere instead of walking, which is a nice visual representation of the teachers laziness (it’s possible I’m wrong about this and that the teacher is actually disabled).</p><h3 class="western">Amity</h3><p>Unlike the two previous antagonists, Warden Wrath and Adegast the puppeteer demon, Amity Blight isn’t evil. Amity is the only character in this episode (aside from maybe Principle Bump) who never demonstrates any form of laziness; in spite of that Amity loses something she earned to someone she knows for a fact cheated. When Amity confronts Willow and later on when Amity grabs Luz and shakes her demanding answers, Amity is the one with the moral high ground in my opinion.</p><p>Amity is unable to get Willow to admit the truth, nor is Amity able to convince her teacher that Luz isn’t really an abomination. Instead Amity gets in trouble and is sent to the principle’s office.</p><p>Amity comes back with Principle Bump who wants cut Luz up so he can see what she’s made of. The music, the shadows on his face when he steps inside the room, the devil horns and the fact that he wants to dissect Luz all make Bump look intimidating and evil. It’s important to remember however that Bump still thinks Luz is an abomination, when he asks Willow to make the first cut he doesn’t know he’s asking Willow to hurt someone. None of the authority figures in this episode are malicious.</p><p>Amity Blight is smirking through the whole scene. Whether Amity loses the moral high ground here depends on if she actually wanted Luz to get dissected or if she was just trying to back Willow and Luz into a corner so they’d be forced to confess their lies. Either one is plausible.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Intruder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 4 Analysis</b>
</p><p><em> The Intruder</em> has two major themes: the primary theme is Respect, and the secondary theme is Authority vs. Rebellion. Student/Teacher relationships are a major motif in this episode just as they were in the previous episode. This episode doesn’t introduce any new major characters but it does further Luz, King, and Eda’s development.</p><p>Ostensibly this episode is about Luz and King defending the Owl House from a mysterious intruder that turns out to actually be Eda; that conflict doesn’t start however until about halfway through the episode. What this episode is actually about is Luz learning to take King seriously and show him respect.</p>
<h2 class="western">The Set Up</h2><p><em>The Intruder</em> begins with King giving Luz a lesson about Demons (King’s desire to teach Luz was set up in the previous episode) but it’s immediately clear that Luz doesn’t take King’s lessons or King himself very seriously. When King begins talking about the Snaggleback, whom King claims is the most powerful demon of all, Luz stops paying attention and starts playing around with her phone. She also abandons this lessons to go outside and enjoy the rain when she hears rain is about to start.</p><p>It’s later revealed that the rain is acidic, this acid rain means Luz and King will be trapped in the house for the nightmare that follows. King tries to talk about the Snaggleback again, Eda says her force-field spell will “protect the house from Boiling Rain and made up demons” implying she doesn’t take his warnings that seriously either (as it turns out this is completely justified since while the Snaggleback does actually exist it’s nothing like what King portrays it as).</p><p>This actually opens up a minor plothole, how did the Snaggleback get in if the shield is supposed to keep out demons?</p><p>Luz’s perspective on King is immediately contrasted with her perspective of Eda. Luz says that someday she’d like to be as cool as Eda the Owl Lady “magical, sassy, and surprisingly foxy for her age”. Luz is eager and enthusiastic to learn about witchcraft despite Eda not being in the mood to teach her.</p>
<h2 class="western">Foreshadowing the Twist</h2><p>The revelation that Eda turns into the Owl Beast is foreshadowed early in the episode with multiple instances of bestial behavior from Eda. Were shown that Eda is attracted to shiny objects and that she built herself a nest. Hooty tells us that Eda coughs up rat bones and later we see a rat skeleton in Eda’s nest. King says that Eda is probably just tired from staying up all night chasing shrews and voles, but it’s unclear if this actually happened.</p>
<h2 class="western">The Light Spell lesson</h2><p>Eda is exhausted but Luz defies her mentor by refusing to let her sleep, then she convinces Eda to teach her by bribing her with a glow-up pen. “I respect you’re cunning but I also hate you for it”. Luz is being resourceful here, just like Eda told her a great witch should be.</p><p>This scene (and the previous scene with the glowing pen) are also foreshadowing/setup for how Luz and King will use Eda’s animalistic qualities against her to defeat the Owl Beast.</p>
<h2 class="western">Luz and King parallels</h2><p>Back on Earth Luz’s eccentric and sometimes disruptive behavior made her an outcast that nobody took seriously. Coming to the Boiling Isles didn’t fix that, now her being human makes most people want to either scream at her or eat her. Luz claims that becoming a witch is her chance to be somebody. Luz asks King “do you know what it's like to have no one take you seriously?” This puts the earlier scenes of Luz disrespecting King into a sadder context.</p><p>There’s also another parallel between Luz and King that isn’t commented on in the episode, and that is that King doesn’t appear to be capable of magic either.</p><p>King promises to help Luz in exchange for her agreeing to finish the Demon lesson. King mistakenly believes that Eda’s potions give her magic powers, so they decide to steal it away from her. This act of defiance kicks off the conflict for the second half of the episode.</p>
<h2 class="western">King the Teacher</h2><p>This is where I start talking about my problems with the episode.</p><p>When Luz and King enter Eda’s room they find the nest empty “Eda? No! Slash marks. King! You're the demon expert. I need your help.” King leaves to fetch his demon book. This got me wondering why, when he and Luz were gearing up to face the monster, King grabbed a stuffed rabbit but left his demon books behind. I get that King taking the stuffed rabbit was supposed to be a joke, but it makes King look incompetent.</p><p>The reveal that the Snaggleback is inside but is a small non-threatening creature was unnecessary and I think the episode would have worked better without it. King mistaking Eda’s Owl Form for the Snaggleback is fine, that just makes him fallible and is good misdirection, but having King’s information be totally backward hurts his credibility.</p><p>The emotional climax of the episode is a conversation between King and Luz while they’re hiding from the Owl Beast, and after they’ve discovered the creature is actually Eda. That scene is very well done.</p><p>In quick succession: King explains that the potion prevents Eda from turning into the Beast, King apologizes to Luz and confesses his insecurities, Luz accepts him as a teacher and says to “finish the lesson”, King figures out how to defeat the Owl Beast, and Luz figures out how to do the light spell.</p><p>This conversation then leads directly into the action climax of the episode where Luz and King follow through on their plan and defeat Eda.</p>
<h2 class="western">Luz’s light spell</h2><p>Luz tells King there’s a pattern in the spell circle, King looks right at the screen and says “what? Where?” indicating he’s unable to see it. This is the only time in the season where it’s made explicitly clear other people can’t see the glyphs, and so far the series hasn’t offered any explanation for why that is. Luz draws it for him and in the process accidentally activates the light glyph. For the first time since coming to the Boiling Isles, Luz is able to do magic.

</p>
<h2 class="western">Eda the Owl Lady</h2><p>“No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, it's manageable.” Eda’s curse is essentially a chronic condition that requires medication. There are so many things you can relate this. I for instance have depression and ADHD. For someone as individualistic as I am, not having full control of your mind and being reliant on medication in order to remain functional is humiliating. Maybe I’m projecting here but I’m believe Eda feels the same way about her curse and that’s why she didn’t tell King or Luz about it until circumstances forced her to.The ending of this episode sets up the mystery of who cursed Eda, which won’t be answered until the penultimate episode of the season, with a full explanation of how and why being delivered in the season finale.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Covention</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 5 analysis</b>
</p>
<p><em>Covention</em> deals directly with all three of the series central themes: Reality vs. Fantasy, Authority/Conformity vs. Rebellion/Individuality, and Moral Ambiguity. The primary theme of this episode however is Pride. King, Eda, Lilith, Amity and to a lesser extent Luz in this episode are all driven by their egos.</p>
<h2 class="western">Teaser</h2>
<p>This episode begins with Luz reading her Azura book, this sets up/foreshadows Luz challenging Amity to a witches duel later in the episode.</p>
<p>The theme of Pride first appears when King says he can draw better then Luz and boasts that they once called him the “King of Artists”. Luz questions this “Wait. I thought you were the King of Demons. Are you just making this up now?” as Luz says this, there is a musical cue and King’s eyes open wide. King turns around and declares “Doesn't matter. What's important is that my followers would leave me offerings in fear of me”. This is another hint towards King’s ostensible backstory being false.</p>
<p>After Eda denies Luz permission to go to the Convention, Luz shows her resourcefulness by having King annoy Eda into submission by reading the Azura book.</p>
<h2 class="western">Tyranny of the Coven System</h2>
<p>The theme of Conformity vs. Individuality is expressed in this episode through the Coven system. In this episode Luz (and by extension the audience) are introduced to the Coven System and shown two very different perspective on that system.</p>
<p>Eda opposes the Coven System while Gus and Willow are both supportive of it: Willow even says she “hopes this informative event will inspire” Eda to join a Coven. Willow doesn’t know Eda, so she can be forgiven for thinking this was a realistic possibility.</p>
<p>Joining a Coven means “acceptance, comradery, and a sense of belonging” but at the price of you’re independence and freedom. It’s likely that Willow and Gus have been indoctrinated from a young age to think that Covens are awesome, but it also makes sense why Covens would have a special appeal to young outcasts, like Willow and Gus and Luz.</p>
<p>Willow also has another reason to support the Coven System that her friends don’t have. Willow is gifted at one specific type of magic, plant magic, which appears to be the only type of magic she’s any good at. In a world without the Coven System where students had classes in all types of magic, then Willow would likely get in F in any magic class that wasn’t plant magic. The Coven System benefits people like Willow but I also think people like Willow are in the minority.</p>
<p>Just as Eda wasn’t willing to blindly follow the system, Luz isn’t willing to blindly follow her mentor “I get it, Eda. Covens: bad. Individualism: good. But I'm still figuring this world out, so I'm going to go in there and make up my own mind, okay?.</p>
<h2 class="western">Pride of a King</h2>
<p>King’s subplot in this episode is short and simple but ties nicely into the episode’s theme of Pride, as well as the theme of Fantasy vs. Reality. After being offered a free pen by someone from the oracle coven, King is excited that people are bestowing gifts upon him and refers to it as an “offering”. King then goes around collecting free samples and gifts from people all over the convention and acting as though he’s receiving free tributes to his power. It’s implied that King is getting people to give him these kings by pretending to be interested in joining their Covens.</p>
<p>All of his swag is destroyed later in the episode when he falls into the arena during Amity’s witches duel. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen King acting out Grandiose Delusions and it certainly won’t be the last.</p>
<p>There’s also another example of King’s pride in this episode. After Amity reveals her terms for the witches duel, Luz’s is reluctant and seems like she’s rethinking it, but then King urges Luz to accept and fight for his honor. This is made even worse by the fact that King doesn’t think Luz has a chance of winning the battle.</p>
<h2 class="western">Pride of Amity Blight</h2>
<p>After leaving the Emperor’s Coven panel, Luz and Amity run into each other.</p>
<p>“Uh... Hey, Amity. So, funny story. Not an abomination. Sorry for the confusion last week. I-I'm Luz. The human. Hi!”</p>
<p>In this moment it seems like Luz just wants to put the past behind her and become friends with Amity, but her apology rings hollow because she doesn’t admit to cheating or lying; the phrasing of the apology implies there was just an innocent misunderstanding even though Luz and Amity both know that’s not what happened. When Amity intentionally stomps on King’s cupcake, then smiles says and “Oops. That was an accident”, Amity is reflecting Luz’s behavior back at her.</p>
<p>Amity holds a grudge against Luz for getting her into trouble with Principle Bump. Luz reminds Amity that “Well, to be fair, you were okay with him trying to dissect me” though interestingly Luz doesn’t seem to bear a grudge against Amity.</p>
<p>Luz injured Amity’s pride so Amity tries to injure Luz’s pride. She tells Luz she can’t be here because the covention is for witches only, that Luz is giving witches in training a bad name, and that Luz can’t be a witch. These things bother Luz but unlike Amity, Luz in this episode isn’t primarily motivated by ego. What triggers Luz into action is Amity bullying King.</p>
<p>The second major example of the “Fantasy vs. Reality” theme in this episode is when Luz imitates Azura by challenging Amity to a witches duel. Luz is fighting for her own pride (she wants Amity to admit humans can be witches) but also for her friends honor, Amity is motivated by pride and pride alone. The stakes in this fight are also totally lopsided since Luz has to stop training if she loses but Amity doesn’t; this gives Luz a third thing to fight for.</p>
<h2 class="western">Challenge of the Mentors</h2>
<p>Lilith Clawthorne is immediately set up as a foil for her sister. Where Eda is the most wanted criminal on the Boiling Isles, Lilith is the Boiling Isles top ranking law enforcement.</p>
<p>Eda is also consistently coded as a blue collar individual while Lilith very much isn’t and comes across as a snob. One of the first things Lilith does is mock Eda for being a trash collector. Despite this, Lilith mentioned earlier that she came from humble beginnings, presumably both the Clawthorne sisters had working class parents.</p>
<p>After questioning why Eda is here, Lilith eagerly jumps to the conclusion that Eda is here to join the Emperor’s Coven. In this moment Lilith, much like Luz in episode 2, is believing what she wants to believe rather than what’s more realistic. Eda laughs at her sisters assumption much like how she laughed at the idea of Luz being a chosen one. This moment of characterization ties into theme of Fantasy vs. Reality; unlike Eda who is a cynical realist, Lilith is  naive.</p>
<p>It’s important they established this aspect of Lilith’s character early on because it explains why Lilith believed that Emperor Belos would heal Eda’s curse.</p>
<p>For all of the contrast between these two women, the one thing they have in common is their massive egos.</p>
<p><b>Lilith:</b> You think being covenless makes you so much smarter than everyone else. But while you run from the law like a degenerate, I'm mentoring the next generation of powerful witch students into the world.<br/><b>Eda:</b> Well, I have a student. And I bet she could wipe the floor with any of your prissy little blue bloods.</p>
<h2 class="western">Witches Duel</h2>
<p>Both of the Clawthorne sisters went behind their students backs to cheat for them, and neither of their students was happy when they found out. Luz found out at the beginning of the duel when Eda revealed her secret plan; Luz said “But I will know in my heart! Even if I win now, I lose.” Amity found out after the duel when Eda exposed Lilith’s cheating. Amity’s reaction shows us she doesn’t like cheating even when it benefits her.</p>
<p>Eda cheating on Luz’s behalf is justified by the fact that Luz would need to stop learning magic if she lost. Lilith cheated to help Amity win but I don’t think she did it for Amity’s sake. Eda teases her sister for cheating and there’s a moment where Lilith tells Eda to stop acting like a child.</p>
<p>Lilith has deluded herself into thinking she’s the mature and responsible one, but let’s look at this situation objectively for a moment. Lilith has a duty to the Emperor to bring Eda in and Lilith also believes that if she does so that Emperor Belos will heal Eda’s curse. Yet Lilith was willing to put capturing Eda on hold for the sake of seeing Eda defeated and humiliated. Holding this fight in the first place was completely irresponsible, cheating to win it was just the cherry on top. Lilith proves her immaturity yet again when she responds to only a minute of teasing with violence.</p>
<p>This incites another witches duel, this time between Eda and Lilith. This duel shows us how powerful both of the Clawthorne sisters truly are and it serves as foreshadowing for their final confrontation in the penultimate episode of the season. At the end of the fight we learn some more about Eda’s curse. “Look at my face. The curse is worsening and I can't keep up with it. I don't know how much time I have left.” This sets up the fact that Eda’s curse will get progressively stronger as the season goes on.</p>
<p>There’s a moment when the camera start zooming in on Lilith’s face and she begins to say something “Eda, I--” but then gets cut off by Lilith throwing pretzels in her face. I think that Lilith was about to admit that she was the one who cursed Eda.</p>
<h2 class="western">Swallowing Pride</h2>
<p>Amity runs away in embarrassment and Luz runs out after her to comfort her and apologize for embarrassing her. The climax for the A plot of this episode isn’t the witches duel but the conversation between Luz and Amity in this darkened hall.</p>
<p>“You made me look like a fool in front of the Emperor's Coven. My future!” Amity is misdirecting her anger but Luz doesn’t argue against it, instead Luz swallows her pride and tells Amity “I’m not a witch”. Luz shows Amity the light glyph spell “But I’m training hard to be one”.</p>
<p>There’s a brief moment where Amity is staring at the light ball, looking surprised and sad. This is all the magic Luz knows at this point but I don’t think Amity was expecting Luz to be capable of any. In this moment I think Amity is beginning to feel guilty about trying to stop Luz from learning magic. Because Amity’s pride won’t let her apologize she turns away and talks down to Luz again “That's nothing. A child could do a light spell. But... I've never seen it cast like that.” Luz doesn’t get angry or defensive. “It doesn’t come naturally to me like it does to you, so I’ve had to improvise”.</p>
<p>Amity’s perspective of Luz shifts from seeing her as somebody pretending to be a witch, to seeing Luz as somebody trying her hardest despite a biological disadvantage. In this moment Luz earns Amity’s respect (even if Amity is too proud to admit that right now) and as a result Amity unbinds the oath.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Hooty's Moving Hassle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry I didn't get this out sooner.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 6 Analysis</b>
</p><p>Hooty’s Moving Hassle is an episode about Pride/Arrogance: secondary themes include Recklessness, Friendship, and Authority vs. Rebellion. Nearly every character in the episode displays some form of arrogance, and for many of these characters this leads them to act recklessly and make stupid decisions that get them into trouble.</p><h2 class="western">
  <b>Beginning</b>
</h2><p>The teaser introduces us to the game of Hexes Hold’em. “Now when it looks like the deck is stacked against you, that's when you break out the wildcard.” The wildcard is a major recurring motif in this episode.</p><p>A wildcard is an unknown or unpredictable factor. Willows insane magical power would qualify as an example of this from the perspective of the Demon Hunters, Eda’s possessed house acted as a wildcard when it stepped on Tibbles’s shack. You could argue that Eda’s curse also acts as a wild card in this episode, since although she knows about it she has no way of predicting when it will strike and in one crucial scene it prevents her from striking down Tibbles.</p><p>Eda clearly takes pride in her skill at this game and takes a victory lap after beating Owlbeart. The theme of pride is reinforced after the teaser when Eda comments on how fierce she looks in her Owl Beast form.</p><p>The theme of recklessness is introduced when Eda tries to put off going to the market to get medication, just so she can play a game of Hexes Hold’em. The theme of Authority vs. Rebellion first appears when Luz steals Eda’s cards and gives them to Owlbert; it must be noted that this is an unusual example of this theme since Luz is defying her mentor for her mentor’s sake.</p><h2 class="western">Marketplace</h2><p>A minor example of the theme of recklessness is Morton, the guy who sells Eda’s potion, he stayed up all night tasting poisons.</p><h3 class="western">Not invited</h3><p>The episode doesn’t reveal that Willow and Amity used to be friends until act 3.</p><p>“Amity’s holding a moonlight conjuring and invited everyone but me”. Willow’s choice of words here is very important because Amity didn’t invite everyone but her. Gus clearly didn’t get an invite either yet Willow specifically says “me” instead of “us”. Willow sounds dejected but when Gus complains about how Amity won’t stop posting about it on Penstagram, he sounds merely annoyed.</p><h3 class="western">Amity’s friends</h3><p>When the camera pans over to Amity, we also see Boscha, Skara, and another girl. Amity looks out of place among her ostensible friends: she doesn’t interact with them or even look at them, and she’s the only one who isn’t smiling.</p><p>
  <span>There’s another moment like this at</span>
  <span> end of the episode when Boscha and the other girls are in a circle around a doll, but Amity is apart from them and sitting in a windowsill. </span>
  <span>Watching this episode again, I think these moments are early foreshadowing of the fact that Amity didn’t choose these people to be her friend</span>
  <span>s</span>
  <span>.</span>
</p><h3 class="western">Pride of Boscha</h3><p>This episode is our introduction to Boscha, though she’s had non-speaking lines before in <em>I was a Teenage Abomination</em><span> and in </span><em>Covention</em><span>. </span><span>Her first spoken lines of dialogue she mocks Willow </span><span>“Sorry you couldn't get an invite to the conjuring, Willow, only real witches allowed.”</span></p><p>
  <span>B</span>
  <span>oscha clearly thinks she’s better than Willow and puts her in the same box of “Not a real witch” that Amity put Luz in during the previous episode.</span>
  <span> Pride is the thing that defines Boscha’s character.</span>
</p><p><span>Amity sighs and says</span> <span>“Leave her alone; it's not her fault she was born without talent.” </span><span>Amity turns her head away when she transitions from defending Willow to insulting he</span><span>r. </span></p><p>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>he n</span>
  <span>ext time we see Boscha we learn that she’s still an arrogant and condescending bitch even when talking to her own mother </span>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>Ugh! Yes, Mom. I'm going to a moonlight conjuring. No, Mom. You can't come. And yes, Mom, it's sad that you're asking.</span>
  <span>” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>his conversation paints a bizarre picture of the relationship Boscha has with her mother. Boscha </span>
  <span>talks to her mother the same way she’d talk to another girl at school; the fact that Boscha’s mother wanted to come to the Moonlight Conjuring might indicate that she wants to be seen this way.</span>
</p><p>“Ew. A talking house is giving me a lecture? Whatever. I'll just TP you like I did with the rest of the neighborhood.” This admission indicates that Boscha is a troublemaker in general instead of just a bully. <span>Boscha’s arrogance doesn’t translate into </span><span>recklessness however as she doesn’t make any attempt to fight the House Demon and instead runs away.</span></p><h2 class="western">Moonlight Conjuring</h2><p>The first major example of rebellion comes when Luz defies her mentor in order to have a Moonlight Conjuring with Willow and Gus.</p><p>When they first realize they can control the house, Willow declares “We're controlling it with the power of friendship...uh-- and the moon. Probably the moon”. This line is played for laughs but I think the power of friendship may actually be a necessary component for the midnight conjuring to work; that would explain why Amity’s group couldn’t even animate the doll.</p><p>The second major example of rebellion comes after Luz and her friends animate the house. Luz at first says they should probably stay put, but when Gus says “On the other hand, we've got a giant walking house and should totally take it on a joyride!” Luz caves immediately. It’s worth noting that Luz isn’t worried about further betraying Eda’s trust, she just doesn’t want to get caught.</p><p>There’s a moment after they scare Boscha when Willow wants to show off their conjuring to Amity, but Luz suggests they turn back. After seeing a Penstagram post from Amity “Shout out to my fellow witches #Humanscanbiteit” Luz’s moment of clarity ends and she gets onboard with Willows idea. This is our first major example in the episode of how pride can cause people to act recklessly.</p><h2 class="western">The Demon Hunters</h2><p>The Demon Hunters are, in my opinion, the most boring villains in the show so far. They don’t get much characterization and only one of them is even named.</p><p>When Tom (the one who likes tossing kids from cliffs and has dreamed of it ever since he was a boy) comes back he lies to the other demon hunters in order to make himself seem more impressive. Another Demon hunter (who I think is supposed to be their leader) replies “They were children Tom”. He underestimates them because of their age, which is likely why he made the dumb villain mistake of not killing our captured heroes right away.</p><h2 class="western">Night Market</h2><p>Tibblet-Tibble Grimm Hammer the Third, or Tibbles as he prefers to be called, is a small short pig-like demon whose design is like a visual pun on the phrase “capitalist pig”.</p><p>“I'm the one they call Grimm Hammer. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I've got weaponry from the Hinterlands, curses from the Winterlands, and jelly beans.” He throws jelly beans in the air and describes them as “lethally delicious” implying that they are poisoned. King almost eats one of the jelly beans before Eda knocks it out of his hand. This introduction establishes Tibbles as somebody who is at once whimsical and treacherous.</p><p>Tibbles claims to not know what Hexes Hold’em is and to have just been using the cards as coaster, this is a blatant lie. Tibbles is at least as good at the game as Eda is but he pretends not to be so that Eda will underestimate him, thus increasing his chance of victory.</p><p>Tibble’s arrogance and recklessness comes in the fact that he never saw King as a threat and so didn’t use the same restraining spell on King that he used on Eda; if Tibbles had done this then neither King nor Eda would have escaped.</p><p>King surprisingly enough only has one real display of arrogance in this episode, and that’s when he describes himself as having a Models Body.</p><p>The A plot and B plot of this episode follow the same basic structure. The heroes get into trouble because their pride causes them to act recklessly; then the villains own arrogance causes them to make a mistake which the heroes exploit in order to escape. Both Luz and Eda are ultimately reliant on one of their friends to save them.</p><h2 class="western">The Owl House</h2><p>The image of the Owl House sprouting bird legs and walking around is most likely based on a Slavic fairy tale/folktale/Russian myth about an ancient witch named Baba Yaga who lived in a hut on chicken legs. Baba Yaga, like Eda, lived both physically and morally outside the bounds of society and did pretty much whatever the fuck she wanted.</p><p>The first time I watched this episode I believed that the house sprouting legs was due tot he Moonlight Conjuring but now I’m not sure. I’ve got no proof of this but I think those legs are just a normal part of Hooty’s body but he keeps them buried under the ground most of the time.</p><p>The demon hunters refer to Hooty as a house demon and in the penultimate episode of season 1, Eda calls him the same thing; we also see in this episode that the walls in the living room are breathing (that’s probably Hooty). The head demon hunters says “Take the house and rip out the house demon.” implying that Hooty could theoretically be removed from the house.</p><p>Even the Moonlight possessed Hooty displays arrogance this episode, but it’s a weird flex. Luz tries to save him from being sold to restaurants as exotic meat by saying he would taste terrible: Hooty insists that he’s a refined taste.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Lost in Language</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry, this episode analysis took so long to complete. I'll try to have the next one up in a few days.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 7 Analysis</b>
</p><p>I’ve been looking forward to analyzing this episode since the beginning. The primary theme of this episode is “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”: secondary themes include Adults vs. Children, Reality vs. Fantasy, and Moral Ambiguity.</p><p>Crying is a major motif in this episode: the first source of crying is the bat baby; the second source is one of the librarians, who cries after ever prank that Luz and the Blight twins pull; the third is the Wailing Star which cries like an injured child as it passed overheard; the last is King at the end of the episode when he misses the babies.</p>
<h2 class="western">Teaser</h2><p>Just like episode 5, this episode opens with Luz reading to King from her Azura Book; and what she’s reading foreshadows/inspires Luz’s actions later in the episode. In this case, reading about Azura befriend her rival Hecate inspires Luz to try and befriend Amity. King contradicts her, saying that “rivals are meant to be annihilated, not befriended”.</p><p>Luz reads “Suddenly the door swung open” and then that literally happens. This foreshadows the Wailing Star meteor shower “magicking the books to life”.</p><p>The theme of Adults vs, Children is established after the introduction of the Bat Baby. Eda says that “babies are awful” and refuses to take care of it until it’s revealed that the Bat Queen would pay her for doing. While Eda sees this as a quick and easy cash grab, Luz describes this as “Our greatest adventure yet. Learning about love and life through a child’s eyes”. Despite their contrasting motivations, both Eda and Luz both make the mistake of assuming this task will be easy since the Baby has been quiet and peaceful so far.</p><p>This is our first example of the “don’t judge a book by it’s cover theme”. In this case the disillusionment happens almost immediately; causing Eda to admit she needs help and Luz to bail on her.</p>
<h2 class="western">Entering the Library</h2><p>The Librarian at the front desk makes it immediately made clear that he has a problem with Eda: “Coffee, grass and bloodstains? These are Eda's, aren't they?”. There’s also a picture of Eda on his desk with the words “library card revoked” over it, and Eda’s tab looks about a meter long.</p><p>It believe it’s implied that the Librarian is prejudging Luz because of her association with Eda, hence why he’s acting so snooty and dismissive. When Luz asks him what the Wailing Stat Meteor Shower is, instead of helpfully offering exposition he tells her to “Read a book”.</p><p>The picture on the librarians desk actually opens up a minor plothole, how did Eda check out these books?</p><p>“I've been caught. Pretend to be a book.” This joke foreshadows Luz getting caught and stitched into the book by Otabin later in the episode. Soon afterwards, there is a dark background gag of a motivational poster with a witch tied to a stake and the words “get learned at the stake”.</p>
<h2 class="western">Amity and Luz Part 1</h2><p>The “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” theme is expressed through Luz’s interactions/relationship with Amity Blight. Due to their negative first impressions the two girls have already prejudged one another. This episode gives them both a chance to see the other’s good side.</p><p>Throughout the episode the two girls to continue to misunderstand one another.</p>
<h3 class="western">Amity reading to Kids</h3><p><span>Luz gets to see Amity’s good side fairly early in the episode when she spies Amity reading the Otabin book to a bunch of kids. </span>We get to see real joy on Amity’s face while she’s doing this; this is the first time we’ve seen her be unambiguously nice to anyone. For the remainder of the episode Luz’s primary motivation is to befriend Amity Blight.</p><p>“<span>Reading to kids. Wow. Looks like this sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center.” </span></p><p>
  <span>The first few times I watched this episode it completely esca</span>
  <span>ped me how condescending and obnoxious that line was. </span>
  <span>Luz </span>
  <span>wasn’t trying to give Amity a backhanded compliment, but how is Amity supposed to know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luz then offers to help with the kids, suggesting they take turns reading, </span>
  <span>but Amity of course is having none of it. </span>
  <span>“Human do you see me going to the Owl Shack and bugging you while you... fry up owls? [</span>
  <em>
    <span>scoffs</span>
  </em>
  <span>] Okay, I don't really know what you do there, but every time you come near me, I get in trouble. Just leave me alone.”</span>
</p><p><span>A</span><span>mit</span><span>y</span><span> desperate and upset </span><span>rather than aggressive.</span> <span>Luz actually complies with Amity’s request, says “I’m sorry. I’m sorry” and turns around to leave. </span><span>This is the first time Luz has ever given Amity a sincere apology.</span><span> There’s a moment when Luz is leaving when Amity raises her hand like she’s about to reach out, but then she never does.</span></p>
<h3 class="western">
<span>O</span><span>tabin</span>
</h3><p>The contents of the book Amity is reading are also important. Otabin spends his days alone with only books for company; which sounds a lot like Luz’s life before coming to the Boiling Isles. Amity seems to identify with Otabin as well, but why should she when she has Boscha and Skara and those other girls? I think this is another hint towards the reveal that Amity’s so called friends were selected for her and that she doesn’t really enjoy their company.</p>
<h2 class="western">Em and Ed</h2><p>The “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” theme is also expressed through Emira and Edric Blight. The pair are nice to Luz and interested in spending time with her, so Luz assumes that they are good people overall. It turns out that the two actually are mean bullies.</p>
<h3 class="western">Luz’s infatuation</h3><p>When Emira and Edric Blight first appear on screen, there’s a sign in the background that reads “Teen Romance”. This is some rather blunt symbolism for the fact that Luz is about to become infatuated with the twins.</p><p>She blushes at Edric winking at her and towards the end of the episode blushes again at Emira calling her a cutie. There’s also a moment when Luz says “I just had the best day. Cool teens like me. Call me a library book 'cause they were checking me out.” I believe this episode is the first time that the show began to hint at Luz being bisexual.</p>
<h3 class="western">Mischief around the Library</h3><p>“I thought we were as cool as cucumbers. But we're as sour as pickles.” This line serves as a reminder of just how delusional and disconnected from reality Luz can be.</p><p>Emira and Edric invite Luz to help them cause mischief all around the library; this montage parallels an earlier montage of Luz having fun by herself. In Luz’s montage she causes trouble for other people unintentionally, while in the twins’ montage they do so deliberately: this can be read as a metaphor for their respective dynamics with Amity Blight.</p><p>The trio’s first prank, erasing the “non” in the nonfiction sign, alludes back to the theme of Fantasy vs. Reality. None of the pranks they pull in this section of the episode are dangerous and it’s easy to see why Luz sees it as just harmless fun; to Amity however, this disruptive behavior reinforces her negative perception of Luz. Amity snitches on the trio and gets them thrown out of the library.</p><p>“You're pretty fun, human. So, hey, we're coming back tonight. There's a certain book we forgot to check out.” Emira is talking about Amity’s diary and Amity knows it which is why she goes red in the face with anger.</p>
<h3 class="western">Ed and Em’s true colors</h3><p>To get back at their prissy sister for tattling on them when they cut class, the twins want to find her diary and post the pages all around school for everyone to see. Luz recognizes that this is going too far and that Amity doesn’t deserve this, but Emira rationalizes by saying “No. See, we're her family. It's tough love. She needs to learn to lighten up.” Emira says this with a smile on her face, and I think she actually believes it.</p><p>When Luz and the twins are playing tug of war over the book Ed and Em say “she needs this” and “it’s for her own good”. In hindsight this says a lot about how messed up the Blight Family actually is.</p><p>It’s worth noting that the first side of Ed an Em’s personality wasn’t a lie. Even after their plan is revealed they continue to be friendly to Luz.</p>
<h2 class="western">Amity and Luz Part 2</h2><p>Amity’s suspicions about Luz appear to be confirmed when she sees Luz with her older siblings, inside her secret hideaway and holding the pages of her diary. “You two are the worst. But you... I've been trying to figure out what your deal is. Are, are you a poser? A nerd? I know. You're a bully, Luz.”</p>
<h3 class="western">Climax</h3><p>It’s not until the climax of the episode, that Amity begins to see the good side of Luz. Luz helps Amity escape and together they succeed at defeating the corrupted Otabin. Luz also makes Amity for the first time in the series. I believe this is the moment that Amity first started developing feelings for Luz.</p><p>After Otabin is healed of corruption he apologizes “I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me.” and she says “Hey, it's okay. We're still friends.” Were shown the same gentle side of Amity we got to see in the beginning when she was reading to kids.</p>
<h3 class="western">Falling action</h3><p>After the battle, Amity has her defenses back up and tells Luz “this never happened”. What Luz does next is I think what solidifies her redemption (for lack of a better word) in Amity’s eyes</p><p>“Wait. It doesn't make up for reading your diary but would you wanna borrow this? I noticed you only had up to four.”</p><p>Luz is acknowledging she hurt Amity and trying to repay her. I interpret the phrase “It doesn’t make up for reading you’re diary” as Luz acknowledging that Amity isn’t obligated to forgive her.If Luz hadn’t done this then I think it would have taken a lot longer for her and Amity to become friends.</p><p>“Thank you. [<em>sighs</em>] Maybe you aren't a bully. I haven't exactly been the friendliest witch either. I'll think on that.”</p>
<h2 class="western">The Babysitting Subplot</h2><p>The Adults vs. Children theme is much more central to the Eda and King subplot than it is to the main plot with Luz and the Blights. The babysitting subplot balances out the daytime library scenes by showing us adults struggling to deal with wild and unruly children.</p><p>There are two examples of the “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” theme during this subplot.</p><p>The first is Luz’s treatment of the bat baby when she returns to the Owl House. She calls it a “cute little baby” and starts poking it, thinking that the creature is harmless. Then the baby coughs up two other bat babies and they all start breathing fire.</p><p>Eda and King start out seeing the bat baby/babies a nuisance they are putting up with for money, by the next morning they’ve come to grown to love the children and found emotional fulfillment from taking care of them. So much so that Eda and King are sad when the babies are gone and they finally get paid.</p><p>This subplot can be read as a microcosm of Eda and King’s relationship with Luz. Eda allows Luz into her life for cynical reasons, but by the end of the season she thinks of Luz as her kid. I wouldn’t be surprised if/when Luz goes home at the end of the series, we get to see Eda take her “coping with empty nest syndrome” book off the shelf.</p>
<h1 class="western">Predicting Odalia Blight</h1><p>Before I sign off I want to make some predictions about Amity, Em, and Ed’s mother Odalia Blight. As of the time I’m writing this she hasn’t appeared on-screen yet (unless you count the shadow in “Understanding Willow”)</p><p>The overly cutesy lunch bag Amity’s mother packed for her looks more appropriate for a child than a teenager and doesn’t seem like Amity’s style in any case: I’m guessing that Amity is embarrassed to be seen carrying it around, which is why her ‘forgetting’ her lunch is a recurring problem.</p><p>The first time I watched this episode I figured that Amity had a loving but overbearing mother sort of like how Barb was to Sadie in Steven Universe. Having watched the entire season, I now believe that Amity’s mother is emotionally abusive. I still however believe that Odalia packs Amity’s lunches herself and does worry about her daughter.</p><p>I believe that Amity’s style of sugarcoated hostility “Even you could get a passing grade someday” is something she learned from her mother; I think the way Amity talked to Willow during her introductory scene in episode 3, is the way Amity’s mother talks to her all the time.</p><p>During this episode Emira describes her and her brothers plot to invade Amity’s privacy and humiliate her as “tough love”, the twins rationalize their cruelty by saying it’s for Amity’s own good; I think this ethos is also something they learned from their mother.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Once Upon a Swap</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Once again I'm sorry it took me so long to get this analysis up. I'll try to get the next one up in less than a week.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 8 Analysis</b>
</p><p>The primary theme of <em>Once Upon a Swap</em> is Youth vs. Age; secondary themes include Authority vs. Rebellion, and Moral Ambiguity. Instead of having a main plot and a subplot, Once Upon a Swap is an anthology episode with three mini-stories held together held together by a backbone story about Eda, King, and Luz switching bodies to see whose life is the hardest. The first two mini-stories end on a cliff-hanger that is picked up on at the end of the next story.</p><p>The way this episode is structured actually reminds me of a Simpsons episode from Season 12 titled “Trilogy of Errors”.</p><p>One thing that does piss me off about this episode is the fact that the characters’ voices don’t change after they switch bodies. I don’t think this would bother me so much if it were the first time I’d seen this, but this trope gets progressively more irritating for me each new time I see it.</p><h2 class="western">Teaser</h2><p>This episode begins by showing Luz’s resourcefulness again, she’s found a creative new way to use the light glyph spell. The trailer for this episode efficiently sets up all of the problems and misunderstandings the characters will face later in the episode.</p><p>First we are reintroduced to Boscha and we get to see the way she treats Luz. It’s worth noting that while the other teens don’t join in on bullying Luz they don’t do anything to prevent it either. King encourages Luz to respond to verbal mockery with violence, Luz wisely tells King it’s not worth it.</p><p>I think</p><p>Boscha’s treatment of Luz is immediately juxtaposed against her treatment of King; where Boscha is nasty to Luz with no provocation whatsoever, she showers King with affection, like he’s an adorable pet, even after he tries to intimidate her.</p><p><b>Luz:</b> Well, I don't see anyone right now. Maybe you're just being paranoid. You're a powerful witch. Why hide when you can "poof" all your problems away with magic?<br/><b>King:</b> What does Luz know about problems anyway? All she has is dumb teen drama! She doesn't understand how hard some of us have it.<br/><b>Eda:</b> You're pampered all day like a dang baby. How hard is that life?<br/><b>King:</b> Well, I don't know if you realized, but I'm not a baby!</p><p>This snippet of conversation sets up all three of the episode’s plots. It’s not explicitly stated but it’s my head-canon that the body swap at the beginning wasn’t random and that each of them ended up in the body they wanted to be in. I think the body swap Eda did the enemies at the end of the episode was random however.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><h2 class="western">Eda’s Catastrophe</h2><p>Eda ended up in King’s body because she wanted to be pampered and doted on, and take a break from all her responsibilities; this desire allowed her to be lured into a trap. Eda is the only one I’m not sure ever had a chance of winning the bet. She would have needed to escape from the old ladies before being taken to the Kitty Cafe.</p><p>If we count Eda’s story as beginning the moment the “Eda’s Catastrophe” title card appears onscreen, and ending at the commercial break, then her story only lasts 4 minutes and 15 seconds. This makes it the shortest of the episode’s mini-stories.</p><p>To be honest Eda’s story is my least favorite part of this episode. It’s incredibly ham-handed in it’s message about how being babied isn’t all that great, and I didn’t think it was particularly funny either. I can’t even say it developed Eda’s character since nothing about the way she or Luz treat King changes after this episode. Unfortunately I can’t skip over this section because I think it holds a important piece to the puzzle of king’s character.</p><p>The tiny demons imprisoned at the Kitty Cafe mentally regressed back to infancy as a result of the way they were treated. As Bowtie explains “Their minds are tragically gone. They've been coddled so long, they forgot how to live on their own. Their brains turned to mush.” This prospect is particularly terrifying for someone as individualistic as Eda Clawthorne.</p><p>We get to see the end result of this process with the tiny demons in rocking chairs at the back of the store. Bowtie is going through the exact same thing but still retains just enough of his mind and has just enough fight left to be able to warn Eda.</p><p>I believe the reason King so often behaves infantile is that he went through this same process or something very much like it, and is now in recovery.</p><h2 class="western">King’s Brush with Death</h2><p>King has always been power-hungry and I think in his mind the main thing standing in the way of his ambitions was his tiny body. I think the reason King chose Luz’s body over Eda’s is that King knows Eda, he understands her problems and respects their severity; as we saw during the teaser however King doesn’t understand or respect Luz’s problems at all.</p><p>If King had steered clear of Boscha’s gang then he could have had an enjoyable day and easily won the bet, but his ego and lust for power wouldn’t allow him to do that.</p><p>King’s story is my favorite part of this episode. It tackles the Authority vs. Rebellion theme from an interesting angle. This series overall tends to sympathetic towards troublemakers, outlaws, and delinquents and often present them as having the moral high ground over authority figures; that’s not the case here.</p><p>These kids aren’t trying to prove a point, or take the high and mighty down a peg or two, or fight for their rights or for a cause. All they are just hurting innocent strangers. King never judges them for this or calls them out on it. On the other hand, King doesn’t appear to have any respect for these teens and believes they are meant to be ruled over. King’s pranks come across as a mean-spirited and a couple of them, specifically when he throws that bag of cursed water that summons a bunch of giant tentacles or when he has the teens use magic to disfigure people’s faces, are actually dangerous.</p><p><b>King</b>: I'll show Luz how to rule over these doofuses. Greetings! Er‐‐ Greetings! Bow before your king of humans.</p><p><b>Scarecrow Kid</b>: [grunts] Hey, nobody tells me what to do.<br/><b>Boscha</b>: [scoffs] Shut it.<br/><b>Scarecrow Kid</b>: Sorry, Boscha</p><p> </p><p>These delinquent teens seem to think of themselves as rebels, but in practice (except for Boscha) they are sheep who enjoy taking orders. The theme of Moral Ambiguity is most pronounced during this section.</p><p>The audience is inclined to side against Boscha because she’s a racist bully and enemy of Luz, but King’s attempt to usurp Boscha wasn’t to avenge Luz or teach Boscha a lesson; King just wanted power and to prove a point. King’s attempted usurpation ultimately fails in part because he’s not as charismatic as he thinks he is.</p><p>He is able to briefly order Boscha’s gang around, but I think that has more to do with the teens just being easily led. These teens know Boscha where King/Luz is still a stranger to them, it makes complete sense that as soon as Boscha gets their attention and puts her foot down that they fall back into line. King doesn’t anticipate this because he’s not viewing these teens as actual people; sort of like how they and so many others don’t treat King like a person.</p><p>When Boscha points at King and challenges him to a race around “Dead Man’s Curve”, it parallels the scene in episode 3 where Luz challenges Amity to a witch’s duel. When Skara says “You don't have to do this, you know We know humans are, like, super fragile.” I believe that line is subtle foreshadowing for Enchanting Grom Fright. When King responds to Scara’s screams by screaming “Don’t baby me” he sounds for a moment like an actual teenager.</p><p>Luz is able to survive and succeed in the crazy and dangerous situations she gets herself into due to a combination of her own resourcefulness and the assistance of her friends. During Boscha’s “strange teenage, coming‐of‐age challenge thing.” King is all on his own and he demonstrates none of Luz’s cleverness.</p><p>If King had walked away from this challenge I think he could have still won the bet.</p><h2 class="western">Luz’s Deal in Heels</h2><p>I don’t have much to say about Luz’s section of the episode. Luz wanted the freedom and independence to do things her own way and the power that comes from having Eda’s body. The thing is that adults aren’t actually free to do whatever they want, actions always have consequences even for somebody like Eda.T he moral message that “you can’t just poof all you’re problems away with magic” is undercut by the fact that Luz is easily able to magic herself and Owlbert out of jail. I can't tell if that was an intentional subversion or a bad writing choice.</p><p>Luz’s struggle to walk in heels is a metaphor for the difficulty of “walking in someone’s else’s shoes”. If I had to select a winner I'd say that Luz was the one who won the bet. Luz figures out how to cast magic in Eda's body relatively quickly, and then goes on to use that newfound knowledge and power to make a lot of money really fast, and had a jolly time of herself while doing it. Just like Eda and King, Luz gets herself into trouble; but unlike Eda and King, Luz is able to get herself out of it. If we accept that Luz won the bet then that makes it even more ironic that she's the one who ends up having to clean Hooty.</p><p>We get another piece of Eda’s backstory, that once upon a time Eda wanted to be in the Emperor’s Coven.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Something Ventured, Someone Framed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 9 Analysis</b>
</p><p><span>The primary theme of </span><em>S</em><em>omething Ventured Someone Framed</em> <span>is </span><span>D</span><span>eception: </span><span>with </span><span>Authority vs. Rebellion </span><span>as a secondary theme</span><span>.</span><span> T</span><span>his is also an episode where the title has nothing to do with the episode’s plot. </span><span>It’s also one of the few Hexside episodes without Amity in it.</span></p><p>
  <span>I see this episode as a parallel to </span>
  <em>I was a Teenage Abomination</em>
  <span>. Both episode 3 and episode 9 center on Luz sneaking into Hexside in order to help a friend stick it to a bully, both plots center around a deception that is exposed </span>
  <span>thanks to the bully</span>
  <span> near the end of the episode.</span>
</p><h2 class="western">
<span>T</span><span>easer</span>
</h2><p>
  <span>We open in the Human Appreciation Society and we see Gus has a collection of human artifacts, but has no idea what they are and has mislabeled al</span>
  <span>l of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s labeled a cheesegrader as “nail clippers”, a bag of potato chips as “whoopie curshion” and is using a flip phone as a bag clip, </span>
  <span>an upside down umbrella with a missing shaft as “food bowl” and a Rubik’s cube as “weapon?” The only one Gus gets sort of right is the paperclip or “pay-</span>
  <span>per-clorp</span>
  <span>” as he labels it. Gus seems to roughly understand what a paperclip is used for, though </span>
  <span>in addition to misnaming it he also overestimates it’s cultural significance</span>
  <span> and mistakenly thinks it imitates the sound of “</span>
  <span>the human ocean”.</span>
</p><p>It seems as though a new human artifact is introduced every week and next week will be an umbrella or “umbrelloom”. There is also a debate on Friday about whether a spork is a spoon or a fork. All of this conveys the idea that witches, even those with a specific interest in humans, are generally very ignorant about the human world. This idea has come up before in episode 1, 3, 6, and 8.</p><p>Because of this it makes sense that Matholomule could fool the other students with fake human artifacts. The only one that really breaks my suspension of disbelief is the egg with a skull drawn on it labeled “human skull”.</p><p>There are eleven rules on Gus’s list but only three are legible: 1) NO TOUCHING, 2) no roleplaying as humans (see the human fantasy club down the hall), and 3) stop asking about human blood. Gus walks around the club room wearing a crown. I believe it’s implied that Gus was something of a petty tyrant.</p><p>The theme of Authority vs. Rebellion is introduced when Matholomule encourages his club-mates to touch objects, calls Gus’s rules stupid, and finally challenges him for leadership of the club.</p><h2 class="western">Gus’s scheme</h2><p>What’s at stake for Gus if Luz doesn’t come is nothing compared to what could happen to Luz if she comes and then is found out. The last time she went to Hexside she almost got dissected. This imbalance in risk makes Gus’s decision to lie to Luz even more selfish.</p><h3 class="western">Hiding Luz</h3><p>Gus put more thought and effort into this scheme than Willow did into passing Luz off as an abomination. He took down all the wanted posters but never got around to destroying them, nor were they secure in his satchel. He prepared Luz a hood to cover her ears, but that couldn’t hide her from the new trouble-sniffing guard creatures that showed up after Luz’s last visit.</p><p>The scene that introduces the trouble-sniffing guards gives us another example of the Authority vs. Rebellion theme. We see them breaking up a scene of two kids bullying another one and stealing his backpack. When one of the bullies is being dragged away he yells “the only thing I’m guilty of is being too real!”.</p><p>Gus has no defense against these creatures and his only plan for avoiding them is just to keep Luz moving.</p><p>When Matholomule shows up Gus throws caution to the wind and has Luz reveal herself. He risked Luz being discovered just put Math in his place a few hours early.</p><h3 class="western">Lying to Luz</h3><p>One part of Gus’s plan he put little to no thought into was making his lie to Luz believable. His ruse was absurd from the beginning but Luz fell for it anyway.</p><p>There’s a moment when one of the School Guards turns to face Luz, sniffs, and says “Trouble” then Gus grabs Luz’s hand and chuckles “Okay, time to run for no particular reason”. This should have been a red flag and it’s not the last time Gus does this either. At least two more times Gus grabs her by the hand and drags her away without any explanation; yet Luz never questions it.</p><p>Here were getting a preview of the same sort of oblivious dumbassery that will later prevent Luz from figuring out that Amity has a crush on her.</p><h3 class="western">Gus’s explanation and Apology</h3><p>“Being younger than everyone is hard. You're overlooked. Ignored. But at the H. A. S. I mattered. I could make sure no one would ever get left behind. I didn't wanna lose that. I'm sorry.” The detail about wanting to make sure nobody gets left behind comes out of nowhere, and I’m left wondering if it’s not just another lie.</p><h2 class="western">Matholomule</h2><p>Matholomule is the main antagonist of the episode and serves as a mirror to Gus; both are power-hungry liars who don’t come clean or apologize until after it’s impossible to hide anymore.</p><p>When Luz comes in and is about to inspect the artifacts, Matholomule knocks them all off the table, jumps on the table, and then points at her “I don’t make another move, human!”. The way this scene is constructed it’s implied that Matholomule was about to call the guards in right then and there, but then he glanced back at his clubmates and changes his mind. Matholomule knows it’s to late to avoid being exposed, so instead he takes control of the narrative by exposing himself.</p><p>“I'm new here at Hexside. M‐Making friends has been hard so I lied. They're all fakes. I thought if I was important enough people would like me. But I've caused enough drama. So, I'll go. I'm sorry.”</p><p>The episode teases the possibility of Matholomule being a sympathetic character but then yanks that away from us. Turns out he only wants power and drama. This speech closely parallels the one Gus himself gives during detention after Luz calls him out. I think the two speeches even have the same music but I’m not positive.</p><p>Matholomule claims to have been in detention a bunch of times back at his old school, but it’s never explained why. Nothing he did in this episode apparently broke school rules, he only got sent to detention because Gus pulled the alarm’s tongue and got it to spray them. His claim to be a ‘detention expert’ so to speak, might just be another lie.</p><p>Unlike Amity or Boscha, Matholomule lacks depth and is also never presented as impressive or intimidating.</p><h2 class="western">Eda Clawthorne</h2><p>
  <span>I don’t have much to say about Eda’s subplot this episode. </span>
  <span>Eda doesn’t want Luz to go to Hexside but decides to put her own grudge with the institution aside so that Luz can get the magical education she deserves. Eda puts faith in Luz not to let the school indoctrinate her into the Coven System. To get Principle Bump to accept Luz however, Eda has to spend hours making up for all the mischief she caused during her own school time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>During this episode, Eda acts as a foil to Gus. Where Gus spends the majority of this episode trying to avoid the consequences of his actions, </span>
  <span>and treats Luz as a means toward an end; </span>
  <span> Eda spends her subplot facing the consequences of her actions</span>
  <span>, all for Luz’s benefit.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Escape of the Palisman</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I"m not really satisfied with my analysis of this episode but I needed to post this so I could move on to the next episode. At some point I'm going to go back and revise this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 10</b>
</p><p><em>Escape of the Palisman</em> <span>is an episode about Guardianship; secondary themes include Loyalty, </span><span>Vilification,</span><span> and Fantasy vs. Reality.</span><span> T</span><span>his episode picks back up the Eda’s Curse storyline and provides us with some worldbuilding about palisman, magic schools, </span><span>and Boiling Isles culture.</span></p><p>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>his episode helps lay the groundwork for </span>
  <em>Wing it Like Witches</em>
  <span>, there also some things that I believe this episode is setting up for season 2.</span>
</p><h1 class="western">Teaser</h1><p><em>Escape of the Palisman</em><span> begins at a playground where Luz and Eda are sitting on the bench watching King play, and Luz is nervous</span> “What if he gets hurt? What if the kids are mean to him? [<em>gasps</em>] My parental instincts are freaking out, man” but Eda is more relaxed.</p><p>King climbs up the slide and when he reaches the top he pretends like it’s his demonic throne. Then when somebody pushes him down the slide he runs crying back to Eda and pleads for her to avenge him and kill the usurper (IE the kid who pushed him down the slide). Eda wisely tells King she’s not going to use Owlbert to blow up a five year old, then Eda gives her Palisman belly scritches.</p><p>We get some exposition about palisman and about Owlbert’s relationship to Eda. We learn that Eda made Owlbert out of the branch of an ancient tree “Oh, he's my palisman and we're bonded for life. I'd annihilate anyone who'd hurt hi.” We also learn about the concept of an interlock, which sets up the reveal about Bat Queen later in the episode.</p><h2 class="western">Hexside Pride</h2><p>The first time Grudgby is mentioned is when Luz tells Eda she’s planning on going with Willow and Gus to the game between Hexside and Glandus High. Luz attributes her sudden interest in sports to discovering “Hexside Pride”. Her aggressive patriotic devotion to Hexside is partially a display of gratitude, since being accepted into magic school is a dream come true for her.</p><p>Luz’s interest in sports also isn’t as out of left field as you might think. In the opening minute of episode 1, there’s a brief flashback that shows Luz trying out to be a cheerleader. Willow and Gus’s enthusiasm for Grudgby has no such precedent. Willow and Gus are the last people you’d expect to be sports fans, so their zealotry for the game emphasizes how ubiquitous the Grudgby fandom is at Hexside.</p><p>I also think her patriotic devotion is partially performative, coming from a desire to avoid being an outcast at Hexside like she was at her old school. This is a side of Luz we haven’t seen before but it feels like a natural progression of her character. Luz’s patriotic loyalty to Hexside causes her to vilify Glandus High, a school she literally knows nothing about. This is played for laughs but it’s also a sign of how insidious the social pressure to conform can be, even someone like Luz isn’t immune to it.</p><p>The true extent and absurdity of the rivalry between the magic schools isn’t revealed until Episode 12.</p><p>We get another example of the loyalty theme and an interesting moment of characterization after Luz returns from the ‘lost and found’; Willow wasn’t willing to leave without Luz, but Gus was.</p><h1 class="western">
  <b>King’s vengeance</b>
</h1><p>King comes into a room and discovers that Eda has unexpectedly transformed into the Owl Beast, but that she is also “only partially transformed, which means she’s totally suggestible”. King immediately decides to exploit Eda’s condition by using her to conquer the playground.</p><p>When Luz comes by and asks to borrow Eda’s staff, King gives it to Luz just to get rid of her. When King tells Luz to interpret Eda’s howling as permission, Luz knows King is bullshitting her but she rationalizes “I really owe Gus and Willow one. And it's just for the afternoon. I'm sure Eda wouldn't mind.”</p><p>King takes Eda to the playground, terrifying the other children and causing them to run away. King’s conquest of the playground is cut short as he predictably loses control of Eda. He tries to use the elixir but it doesn’t work, at the end of the episode Eda exposits that this is because the curse is getting stronger.</p><p>The Demon Hunters return in this episode but now they are working as animal control. Even though they function as antagonists they aren’t actually the bad guys in this situation. They were summoned to subdue and capture a monster that was terrorizing children.</p><p>King’s loyalty to Eda compels him to go and save her; his squeak of rage is able to turn her back to normal but afterwards he lies to her and doesn’t admit to using her.</p><p>There were no hints in the episode that the Boy who pushed King down the slide was anything but a perfectly nice but dim-witted kid until the moment he says “You’re pride has destroyed you. The throne belongs to me now”. Moments later the boy Boy goads King “Yes, leave and forfeit your reign.”</p><h1 class="western">Bat Queen’s Trials</h1><p>What Luz does in taking Eda’s staff without permission and flying to Glandus despite never having driven a staff before, is comparable to a teenager with no driving experiencing stealing their parents keys and driving someplace. Naturally Luz gets into an accident and damages Owlbert.</p><p>After he’s hurt Owlbert runs away,</p><p>While Luz, Willow, and Gus are on their way to the Bat Queen’s lair we get an interesting bit of characterization for Willow. “Wow. I keep stepping on a lot of crunchy twigs.” When Luz corrects her and tells her those are bones Willow replies “Not if I never look down.” This moment also ties into the theme of Fantasy vs. Reality.</p><p>Luz and the Bat Queen both want to take care of about protect Owlbert, but both of them also have other motivations. Luz wants to avoid Eda’s wrath and earn Owlbert’s forgiveness, while the Bat Queen’s loyalty and guardianship over the other Palisman is tied up in resentment towards palisman owners.</p><p>The Bat Queen is quick to judge and vilify both Luz and Eda, but Luz doesn’t do the same back. Even though Luz is willing to fight the Bat Queen, she also tries to understand her.</p><p>Owlbert chooses to return with Luz and shows his loyalty to her by lying to protect her from Eda.</p><p>The last notable example of the theme of guardianship in this episode is the Bat Queen taking care of her children.</p><h3 class="western">Bat Queen’s Future Role</h3><p>This is the last time the Bat Queen appears in Season 1 but before Luz leaves she promises to help the Bat Queen search for the truth is she ever wants to find out what happened to her owner. The Skull Whistle she left in the treasure chest in her First Episode hasn’t shown up since, I’m guessing that’s a checkoff's gun for season 2.</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Sense and Insensitivity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Owl House Episode 11</b>
</p><p><em>Sense and Insensitivity</em> is an episode about Ego/Pride and Teamwork. These themes are prominent in both the A plot with King and Luz, and the B plot with Eda and Lilith; though the A plot is more moralistic. The ‘perils of fame’ is a secondary theme but is only during the later half of the A plot.</p><h1 class="western">Teaser</h1><p>The theme of pride is established at the very beginning of the episode, when King is demanding as ‘their ruler, the King of Demons’ that people partake in his free snakes. He then childishly asks “Why isn't anyone paying attention to me? I'm their rightful overlord, intellectually and such.”</p><p>It’s during this teaser that we learn that Luz has dreamed of becoming a writer since she was at least seven years old. We get to see a picture of 7 year old Luz looking pretentious and adorable. Even though 7 year old Luz was ambitious and overestimated herself, she was able to separate fantasy from reality and accept that some things were impossible. Maybe I’m totally off base here, but I think this is implying that something happened to Luz in the past seven years that caused her to lose her grip on reality.</p><p>We see John De Plume and his publisher Piniet, and we get some foreshadowing for Piniet’s contracts when De Plue says he’ll sign anything and laughs evilly</p><p>Small Nose shows up briefly and declares her desire for John De Plume to read her story. She shows up again in the middle of the episode wanting the same thing from King but she doesn't get it (It's implied John De Plume didn't read her story either. At the resolution of the story Small Nose's story finally gets read by Piniet, who loves it so much he immediately decides to make her the new star writer, replacing King.</p><p>The theme of teamwork isn’t established until towards the end of the teaser. After King declares his intention to enter the competition, Luz suggests they work together “It'll be perfect! We're best friends, so we'll make the best team!” King’s response foreshadows why this partnership will fall apart “Team...yes...my name goes first on the cover.”</p><h2 class="western">
  <b>King and Luz’s plot</b>
</h2><h3 class="western">Brainstorming and Writing</h3><p>Luz and King are trying to tell two fundamentally different kinds of stories. Luz seems to be trying to write a Disney-esque romantic fairy tale, in her story "Luzura's tear fell on the frozen prince, bringing him back to life.”. King by contrast is trying to write a violent grimdark fantasy, the kind of story where the heroine dies and the bad guy gets to destroy everything.</p><p>During King’s fame montage, the Reviewnacorn describes Ruler’s Reach as a “perfect blend of heart and heartlessness”; I think this is a good summery of what Luz and King bring to the table respectively, and why King needs Luz to be a good writer.</p><p>Because of his ego, King doesn’t appreciate Luz’s contributions. When Luz leaves for a minute to talk to Eda, King immediately takes over and throws out most of Luz’s ideas When Luz tells him “If this is how you want to win, maybe you should submit the story on your own.” King’s motivation changes slightly, now he wants to prove his superiority over her as well.</p><h3 class="western">Piniet Publishing</h3><p>We get this an odd and unnecessary scene of King bursting into “Grimgrub’s Pub” and trying to get people to read his story, only to get thrown back out and landing in mud; then Piniet randomly shows up to pick up the book off King’s head to read it. This scene doesn’t flow naturally from the scene preceding it and adds a plot contrivance that doesn’t need to be there.</p><p>It would have felt more organic if King just returned to the book fair to submit his story and if he met up with Piniet that way.</p><p>Anyway Piniet magically speed-reads Kings book and loves it. King denies having any help writing Ruler’s Reach. Piniet offers to publish Ruler’s Reach and make King as famous as John De Plume. King then signs, or rather paw-prints, a contract without reading it. King describes this as the first step in his reclamation of power.</p><p>After becoming a famous author, King tries to imitate the look of John De Plume; wearing sunglasses, a jacket, and a scarf.</p><p>King returns to the Owl House to find Luz working on a story of her own; King rubs his newfound success in Luz’s face, but also genuinely wants her to come to his party.</p><p>Luz has enough humility to come to King’s party and congratulate him on his success. Even once it’s clear to King that he needs Luz’s help, he continues to denigrate her.</p><p></p><blockquote>
  <p><b>King: </b>Great to hear, cuz I really need your help with my next book!</p>
  <p><b>Luz: </b>Huh?</p>
  <p><b>King: </b>Apparently I can't write my daring works of genius without rebelling against your gushy fantasy slop!</p>
  <p><b>Luz: </b>Excuse me?</p>
  <p><b>King: </b>We make a great team! So, here's a pen, writey writey, clocks-a-tickin'!</p>
  <p><b>Luz: </b>*drops pen* I'm not writing for you after you made fun of all my ideas!</p>
</blockquote><h3 class="western">Fame can Really Box you In</h3><p>Piniet abducts Luz and traps her in a shrinking box that he can force her and King to write him a sequel to Ruler’s Reach. Piniet describes this as “literal crunch time” and claims some of his best books were written under this condition.</p><p></p><blockquote>
  <p><b>Luz: </b>That's a toxic mentality that contributes to burn out and unrealistic expectations! King, do something!</p>
</blockquote><p>This message is undercut however by the unrealistic speed and apparent ease with which King was able to complete Ruler’s Reach earlier in the episode. You can’t have it both ways.</p><p>Piniet has an entire suitcase full of writers who have been shrunken and crunched into cubes, showing what’s going to happen to Luz and King if they don’t get out in time.</p><p>Being trapped together forces Luz and King to talk out/work out their problems. King apologizes, the two of them reconcile, and then they come up with a plan to escape Using Luz’s light spell to stun Piniet, and King’s “pretentious scarf” as a rope to tie him up and being him closer; Luz and King are able to get their hands on the contract and tear it up, freeing them from the cage.</p><p>King then releases all the tiny cubed authors, who gang up to attack Piniet.</p><p>Unfortunately two big guard lizards block our heroes path and they are only saved by the last second appearance of Small Nose. King’s ego flares up one last time, as he’s indignant at having his spot stolen from him; but Luz just picks King up and leaves.</p><h2 class="western">Eda and Lilith’s B Plot</h2><p>The B plot of this episode parallels Witches Before Wizards. Both episodes feature a trickster who distributes maps to a nonexistent treasure in order to lure people into a deadly trap. In this episode that trickster is an anthropomorphic weasel and the treasure is the “bloom of eternal youth”; a flower that supposedly grows only once a millennia and grants eternal youth to whoever holds it.</p><p>Luz was able to be tricked by Adegast due to both her naivety and her ego, in this episode those reasons are divided between the Clawthorne sisters.</p><p>Lilith is tricked by the Weasel due to her naivety. That’s not to say she isn’t egotistical, just that this isn’t what enables her to be tricked here. Lilith’s pride causes her to underestimate Eda “my sister's curse has left her frail - she'll still be here when we get back. This comes first, it's for the emperor after all”. Her ego also causes her to behave condescendingly towards Steve, though Steve doesn’t mind.</p><p>Edda’s pride causes her to overlook an obvious trap/scam and go on a quest to find the bloom of eternal youth in order to show up Lilith.</p><p>Finally the Weasel’s ego blinds him to the danger inherent in trying to fuck with the leader of the Emperor’s Coven and the most wanted witch on the Boiling Isles. The reason I say the B plot is less moralistic is that even though Eda and Lilith decide to team up to defeat the bad guy at the end, either one of could have easily taken down that Weasel by herself.</p><p>This misadventure is used to develop the Clawthorne sisters relationship; we’ve seen their rivalry, but now we get to see that they really care for each other. Eda saves Lilith from a crab-spider monster. Lilith allows Eda to go free at the end instead of trying to capture her, because she wants Eda to have a chance to join the Emperor’s Coven of her own free will.</p><p>Lilith tells Eda the Emperor can heal her curse, but Eda doesn’t want to owe him anything or be under his control. Eda’s pride and independence is more important to her than her health.</p>
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